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Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Hugh the Drover (1914, rev. 1956)
Hugh – Bonaventura Bottone (tenor)
Mary – Rebecca Evans (soprano)
John the Butcher – Alan Opie (baritone)
The Constable – Richard Van Allan (bass)
Aunt Jane – Sarah Walker (mezzo)
Corydon Singers, Corydon Orchestra/Matthew Best
rec. Blackheath Concert Halls, London, 27-30 January 1994
Reviewed as a digital download with pdf booklet from hyperion-records.co.uk.
2 CDs for the price of one.
HYPERION CDD22049 [101:42]

Britten comprehensively disposed of the notion that, after Purcell, the English couldn’t write opera. I very much hope that Birtwistle, Ades and Benjamin are recognised as continuing that work. But what of English opera before Peter Grimes? What of the operas of Vaughan Williams in particular? Or to be more specific what about Hugh the Drover?

A half decent staging (it wasn’t perfect) a few years ago at the ENO showed what Vaughan Williams aficionados had long known - that the Pilgrim’s Progress can work on stage. I have little doubt that Hugh the Drover could work just as well.

Like Pilgrim’s Progress, Hugh the Drover might be said to suffer from having almost too much music. I can’t think of another opera with quite so many tunes. This has the effect of an oratorio rather than an opera. It is not so much that the work is undramatic so much as all the drama is musical. This makes it ideal for recording.

One of the biggest obstacles to the full recognition of the qualities of Hugh was right there from the start, according to Michael Kennedy’s illuminating booklet notes to this recording. It seems even VW’s librettist, Harold Child, made the mistake of assuming that an English comic opera would have characters who were merely buffoons and yokels. Nothing could be further from the composer’s intentions or from the score he produced. His deep love for English folk song meant he took the people who sang those songs with deep seriousness. Given that the opera was written during the lifetime of that greatest of chroniclers of English rural life, Thomas Hardy, this general attitude is very strange. Perhaps comedy brought out the worst urban prejudices. I do wonder if it is a fear of this sort of thing that deters more listeners from exploring this lovely work.

This recording is not entirely free from such “yokelisation”. The spoken passages in the opening fair scene, especially the passage about Napoleon “Bonyparty” seem to have wandered in from some creaky dated TV drama from the 70s. Mercifully this doesn’t extend in any way to the musical performances.

As Michael Kennedy observes in the liner notes, the orchestration shows evidence of the composer’s recent lessons with Ravel. This is a shrewd observation. I also hear Vaughan Williams well on his way to what I regard as his great watershed work – the Third Symphony (and not the Fourth which, for me, continues the change in direction initiated by the Third). World War One separates Hugh from A Pastoral Symphony and its influence is crucial in Vaughan Williams’ development but it seems clear, listening to the opera, that Vaughan Williams was already moving musically in that direction. Apart from the influence on instrumental colour, the other striking difference is greater concision. Hugh is completely free of the baggage of many more famous operas, just as A Pastoral Symphony is a model of concision compared to the expansive symphonies that preceded it. Even the many tunes already mentioned are handled with exemplary economy and never interfere with the onward momentum of the score.

As a score, though, Hugh looks backwards as well as forwards. It reflects a world and an attitude that had vanished by the time the composer returned from war. One of many ironies attached to this work is that the world it looks back on is that of some of the composer’s most popular works such as The Lark Ascending and the Tallis Fantasia. If any reader thinks I am exaggerating, I suggest they listen to the end of Act 2 (or its beginning for that matter!) This is Vaughan Williams right at the end of the first flush of his love affair with English folk songs and, as ever with him, picking out the real ones from the composed ones is a tricky business. And what tunes they are!

There is more to this wonderful score than just melodies. The light and shade in the numerous very brief orchestral linking passages inhabit the mature, poignant world of the Third and Fifth symphonies. It is decidedly peculiar that whilst the symphonies rightly enjoy great popularity, music like Hugh, that is at least their equal in its own way, languishes in relative obscurity. The music for the lovers, in particular, is Vaughan Williams at his considerable best. To sample what I mean, listen to the glorious orchestral postlude to their Act One love duet.

Sadly, it seems unlikely that Hugh the Drover is likely to get another professional outing, either on stage or in the recording studio, any time soon though I hope I am wrong. Happily, it seems unlikely to me that any future recording will improve on this one, currently a frankly outrageous bargain from Hyperion. I listened to it as a 16-bit lossless download and I can say that the recorded sound is well up to the standards we have grown to expect from that label. It definitely doesn’t show its age in the slightest.

The singing is not just of a consistently high standard but everybody seems tuned into the stylistic requirements of good folk singing. There is no operatic showboating here. I was particularly impressed with the contribution of Bonnaventura Bottone as Hugh. He is sensitive both to the words but also to the subtle inflexions of VW’s melodies. He is particularly strong in the quieter music and produces a lovely sound throughout. He is, though, very much first among equals as everyone sings well.

Unsurprisingly, Matthew Best’s crack chorus, the Corydon Singers, relish every note of Vaughan Williams’ choral writing, a real strength of this opera. His scratch orchestra don’t even merit a mention on the front cover but they play extremely well from first note to last.

This is a truly lovely opera, beautifully produced and performed. It deserves a much wider audience. I was delighted to get to know it. Perhaps you will be too?

David McDade

For the cantata A Cotswold Romance, using material from Hugh the Drover, see review review of Chandos 2-for-1 release.

 

 



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